A friend and I were talking and she suggested I list the ribbons on Etsy. If you have never heard of Etsy well you have been missing out! I have found some great things from Etsy over the years. This friend also mentioned how easy it was to set up this Etsy account, she herself has one ya know. But she must not have realized she was talking to the computer illiterate. What probably would have taken a computer savvy person 30 minutes to set up has taken me a few very interrupted hours. My site is very plain because I could not even begin to come up with an actual personalized banner but I did manage to squeeze in a stock one. So check it out! It makes buying the Ribbon easier. Just click on the link below:

This is only half of the beautiful colors that you will get, you  receive 27 colors total in your pack.

While we were in China we started talking about adopting again. We somehow knew this was the plan. Even though our minds were saying are you nuts?? Six kids! The family we traveled with even joked around with us and told us we would be back.

On our very last day  in China we were walking around Shamian Island doing some last minute shopping. Just as we were leaving a store we had been to several times a worker there thrust a small baby rattle into John’s hand as we were leaving and told him this is for when you come back to get her a little sister. We laughed and I wondered would we really do it?

Not long after we got home I was ready to start the process again. John had to work through his doubts and I prayed hard that John would be ready and willing. In my mind I was consumed with adopting again and waited patiently. Well my God has reassured us that we are following his plan for our family and we have started our second adoption from China. We are all so excited and wish we were leaving tomorrow! The children can't wait and ask all the time when are we going to get our little sister?

We will adopt Special Needs again. We will adopt a girl and we plan on her being 3 or younger at the time of adoption. Though we know sometimes Gods plans are not ours!

The biggest difference this time is that we need to raise money for our orphanage fee. For Lily's adoption we were fortunate enough to have the funds available this time is different. We are required to make a donation of $5000.00 to our child's orphanage. This money is used to better the orphanage our daughter was in. They can provide education, medical care and basic needs through this donation. We plan to raise that money. I will have several fund raisers and will be launching our first fundraiser very soon so stay tuned!

We are just in the beginning stages of our Home study and because China has changed their process yet again we will need to be DTC (Dossier to China) to get a referral. So I am hoping to be DTC by end of year! So please join us on our second Journey to China...

I would first like to thank my friend Sharon. If she had not posted about this I would not have learned of this neat little gem. Not long ago she got her hands on a copy of choreganizers and posted about it on her blog. She referred to the Pioneer Woman who also blogged about it and between the two of them I was sold and excited. I ordered mine from Amazon and anxiously awaited for it to arrive. I received it and couldn't wait to  learn how to implement it. I sat down and read the instructions, tore out all the cards and have gotten all my items bought for the store. Tonight I will place cards in the kids charts for the first time. I can't wait to see how it goes. I really need these guys pitching in more around here. You can imagine the mess 5 kids make and some of ya don't even have to imagine.
As for choreganizers they have thought of it all, even including blank cards for me to include my own special chores like massaging mom's feet, scrubbing the dried, spilt Sunny D out of the crevices on the kitchen cabinets and of course my favorite one, breakfast in bed for mommy.
I just love it, how can I not love something that included a chore card for memorizing Bible verses!

Today I received in the mail a application to attend a seminar titled:

Protecting the Aging Brain: Focus on Nutrition and Mind/Body Health

It is from the Institute for Brain Potential. Ok, who referred me?

Is it my dentist or child's orthodontist? The one's who I miss the appointment even with a phone call reminder and it is written in my calendar because I still forgot.

Or the School that has yet to receive the necessary paperwork for my child to start school tomorrow?

Or the friend that I had a lunch date with and forgot?

I got a good laugh out of that brochure today but seriously. It claims I will find out how old my brain is and my Hippocampus. I don't know but I'm guessing about 40 years, right? I also can find out how fast I think (already know that one, sloooooowwwww) and do I have hidden inflammation? Sounds really interesting doesn't it?

Anyway, anyone interested in going? Just kidding. I can think of many other ways I'd like to spend $75 bucks and six hours!

Wo Ai Ni means I Love You. It is chinese and one of the phrases we still use with Lily.
I am not sure if anyone ever told her Wo Ai Ni before we did but I am happy she has someone to tell her everyday now. Wo Ai Ni Mommy is also the name of a documentary that will be on PBS on August 31. In my hometown it airs at 10:30 apparently only on ETVHD. You can check your local listings. You can go to the movies wesite to learn more.....

Wo Ai Ni (I Love You) Mommy


The acclaimed "Wo Ai Ni (I Love You) Mommy" relates the story of 8-year-old Fang Sui Yong, a Chinese orphan adopted by a Jewish family from Long Island. The transition initially proves difficult, as Sui Yong had grown close to her Chinese foster family.

We are full swing into birthdays at our house. We have all 5 kids birthdays in 3 and 1/2 months with 4 of them being within 6 wks. It is sometimes draining (not only for my mind and energy but also the wallet) but so worth it when I see them so happy and they feel so special on their day. We only allow our kids to have a party every other year to help so this was Sellers year to have a party. He has planned it for weeks and wanted everything to be perfect. In my opinion it was just that. Everything was wonderful up until the last kid went home. Sellers has surrounded himself with some great friends! I will post pictures from the party later but today I just wanted to say Happy Birthday Sellers!! You are loved!

                                                 All dressed up for his first day of 4th grade.


                                                                        I'm cool!

STRIKE!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is a poem Sellers wrote about himself last year in school.

S-Star Wars Freak
E-Excellent at Legos
L-Loves Star Wars
L-Loves TV
E-Excellent at being myself
R-Robot Liker
S-Super untidy

Years ago Noah and Sellers used to love to grab a blanket and sit in the space behind my knees when I was laying on the couch. They coined it "the nest". At times they would race to see who got to watch TV in mama's nest. I loved when they would sit in my nest.It's not easy sometimes getting little boys to sit with you a while. I had forgotten about the nest. Noah and Sellers are much too big to fit in my nest now and the littles weren't around then to know about it. But out of nowhere Tuesday night I was laying on the couch and Sellers (who is nearly my size) said he wanted to sit in my nest. So I tried to make as much room as possible for my grown size boy to fit in my nest. We laughed as he got comfy and he settled in for a cuddle in the nest. Mason was standing nearby and quickly wanted his turn in the nest. After Sellers got up Mason cuddled up for his turn in the nest. Shortly after John decided to take everyone to the pool. Mason hopped up and looked at me and said, "mom, I'll be right back, take care of my eggs".

Last night John and I attended orientation at the elementary school three of our kids will be attending. We had to split up so we could make each class and hear the teacher's expectations for the year. I went to Wyatt's eagerly wanting to meet his teacher with this being his first year of school. I walked in the room and sat down. It wasn't long before this thought occurred to me.

Nine years ago I walked into a Kindergarten orientation for the first time for Noah (who turned 13 Saturday btw). I remember sitting there 9 years younger and thinking that some of these parents looked too old to have kindergartners. Well last night I looked around the room and I have officially become one of those parents! These parents looked soooo young and I wondered are they old enough to have kindergartner's? Man, I will be ancient by the time I take the rest of our kiddos!

Today I'm on my soapbox.If I had a dollar for every person who has told me how great it is that we adopted Lily or expressed interest in adoption but has not made any step towards it I could probably fund another adoption. Everyone thinks it's a great idea but not for them. Why? Adoption IS a miracle. Adoption IS a blessing. Adoption is taking a chance but it is welcoming Jesus into your very home.






But if you can't or don't want to adopt you can help those who do. Lori is auctioning off an iPad to raise money for her third adoption. Go check it out here:







Or An Orphan's Wish, the organization I volunteer with is having a sponsor drive. They are striving to gain 100 new sponsors for their kids in China who need special care. Right now you receive a cool t-shirt if you sign up and for each new sponsor the volunteer that referred them gets their name in a drawing for a trip to China to visit these precious children. Check it out:



http://www.anorphanswish.org/what-you-can-do/100-sponsors-in-100-days



And if I haven't interested you yet then maybe you could simply pray for an adoptive family, or pick a orphan to pray for that they will have a family. There are many ways you can support the 147 Million orphans in the world. After all 147 is a lot of kids...

It is time for a new blog design. The header pictures are so out of date it's sad and our lovely daughter doesn't even have a picture on top. Does anyone know a good person to do this? Please leave me a comment if you can recommed someone. The person that did mine no longer does it. Thanks!

 I would have posted sooner but I had to wait and tackle the whole memory issue on my computer which I finally did today. John and I celebrated our 15th Wedding Anniversary July 8. Since I was working this year I decided to surprise John and secretly plan a cruise. I booked the cruise all by myself and didn't breath a word of it. After keeping it a secret for several months I blew it. We were standing in the closet one day and I showed John a dress I had just bought and then said "won't this look cute on our cruise". His eyes grew big and he said "we're going on a cruise?". Yes dear we are. So my hint about the view from my treadmill changing was about the cruise only I never made it to the treadmill because we were too busy doing other things. But if I had made it, it would have looked something like this:One of the best parts of a trip like this is how John truly loosens up and becomes that person I remember long before we had the responsibilities of our life today. I really enjoyed spending time with that side of John. Our ship looked a little something like this.